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Lehman Brothers has a clear-cut strategy in the US and Europe. But its plans in Asia are much more abstract. With a history of pulling in and out of the region, there are signs that the firm is, once again, intent on building up areas of Asian business. Lehman management claims this is part of a long-term strategy, but its actions remain open to interpretation. Fiona Haddock reports.

Growing liquidity. Amenable tax reforms for investors and issuers. Increased transparency and regulation. All are unexpected features of a buoyant Russian corporate bond market, which has emerged stronger for its default-tainted1998 experience. Not surprisingly, the country's corporates are wise to the benefits of domestic fixed income, and have pushed issuance volumes to healthy levels, swelling fee earnings among local houses on the way. Guy Norton asks if this new-found optimism will be enough to feed further growth in 2002.

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After being shut out of the international bond markets for more than three years, Russian issues are finally finding opportunities for issuance, and it has been a steep learning curve for both issuers and lead managers, with some successes - such as City of Moscow's trailblazing three year deal - and some failures - including a poorly timed bond from Rosneft. Guy Norton reviews a rollercoaster five months and looks ahead to a corporate pipeline that is already building again.

With the growing interest from both international debt and equity investors in the Russian capital markets, the need for reliable economic data on which to base investment decisions has arguably never been greater. "Investors realise that they can't afford to ignore Russia, but they need to have access to comprehensive data," says Paul Timmons, an ecomomist at Moscow Narodny Bank in London.

All eyes will be on media and IT company RosBusiness Consulting later this month, which is looking to launch a pioneering share offering on the Russian equity stage. If the planned domestic IPO is a success, market watchers hope it will prompt fellow Russian corporates to issue equity on the bouyant Moscow bourses. Guy Norton evaluates its chances.

Change is in the air in Moscow. The Russian people are at last looking to the future, rather than yearning for the Soviet past, and president Putin still has at least 12 months before elections take centre stage to keep up the momentum of reform. Market watchers say that 2002 is a real opportunity for Russia's banking sector to embrace this new zeal for modernisation - but the question remains whether investors, domestic and foreign, can leave behind the shadow of 1998. Guy Norton reports.

The bank market has quickly forgotten the losses incurred after a moratorium on $4bn of commercial bank debt was declared in 1998 and Russian borrowers have discovered a new found popularity. Top oil and gas borrowers are negotiating five year tenors, less complex structures and tighter margins; financial institutions are enjoying looser terms and a diverse range of corporates are edging closer to the market. Ruth Lavelle and Colette Campbell investigate the changing perceptions of Russian risk.

After an 18 month hiatus, Russia returned to the international equity markets in February with a $226m IPO from Wimm-Bill-Dann, an ambitious corporate which shrugged off allegations of mafia links to sell over 12m shares. Fellow manufacturer Danone took a 4% stake in the company, and, as Guy Norton reports, there were plenty of other investors convinced by the story.

Glasgow, Scotland-based Abbey National Asset Management, which manages roughly £4.5 billion in fixed-income assets, is shortening duration in gilts in an attempt to protect itself from potential weakness in the market on the back of improved economic growth. Rod Jack, the firm's fixed-income investment manager who focuses on the U.K. government market, says the next purchase will likely be the U.K. 5% bonds of '12, which are being auctioned this week and should bring interest into the market, because investors want to increase their liquidity. The firm has recently upped its allocation to cash from 2-3% to 5-6% on the view that yields will continue to fall.